


Ghost

by Beklet



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-16
Updated: 2018-10-18
Packaged: 2019-08-02 23:48:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,021
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16315010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beklet/pseuds/Beklet
Summary: The Ghost of Princeton was how everyone knew an unsolved murder case from six years ago. A young woman, 21 at the time, was burnt to death in her own home, the body so badly marred that the only way to know the identity was through dental records.Spencer Reid had followed the investigation carefully, finding pieces that didn't quite fit. He wasn't sure why until a two and a half years later, when he found out that she was now a criminal hacker, that her death had been faked.After finally being brought in for questioning she speaks only to Spencer, speaking truth the entire time. They find out her disappearance was a lot more complicated than a murder.That Cressida Stiel wasn't a criminal by choice, but by kidnapping.





	1. The Ghost

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Part I  
> The Case of Cressida Stiel  
> •○●○•
> 
> "To be trusted is a greater compliment than being loved."  
> -George MacDonald

“What’s your name?” Agent Hotchner asked the criminal sitting in the interrogation room, the woman only looked towards the one-way window, the one that her intended interrogator was standing behind.

“Your cooperation would be highly valued and highly appreciated…” Rossi added, but the young woman stayed silent. This is the scene that had been repeating itself for nearly six hours. She was brought in with handcuffs, attached to the table and then allowed to be interrogated. All but one member of the BAU had attempted to get her to talk without letting the one person she wanted to see into the room.

So far, that plan hadn’t worked.

Each approach failed, intimidation, understanding, sympathetic. She kept silent no matter who spoke to her or how they spoke to her. She only looked to the people in the room when _he_ wasn’t watching from the other side of the glass, somehow she managed to lock eyes with him even though she couldn’t see him. Whether he was sitting, standing or on a different side of the room… she always knew, and her eyes always followed.

“It’s been six hours, don’t you think it’s time you spoke, even to request a lawyer?” Rossi then asked, but it was almost as if she didn’t hear him. It was unnerving, the fact she hadn’t spoken yet, that her expression never changed. What seemed to add to that sense of uneasiness around her was how pale she was, her hair was essentially white, her skin near the same, her eyebrows and eyelashes were just a pale, making her light blue eyes seem to stand out all the more. She was rare, an albino, and to add to her rarity she was a mathematical and digital genius.

“This isn’t working,” Morgan stated the obvious from behind the glass along with the others. “Kid, I think it’s time you went in there.” He added, Dr Spencer Reid had an extremely frustrated expression on his face. That exact point of getting into the room was something he had been arguing over for the past six hours to no avail.

“That is what I said six hours ago,” Reid responded bluntly, looking from Morgan back to the pale woman who was staring right back at him.

“Hotch thought that someone else could break her without giving her what she wants.” JJ began to argue, but Spencer was not in the mood for it.

“It’s not what she wants, I’m the only person she trusts enough to talk to. She _needs_ to talk to me which is why she hasn’t spoken to anyone else.” He responded, a little more emotionally fuelled than he had planned, watching as Roddi and Hotchner continued getting aggravated by the woman’s actions… or lack thereof. Morgan was on his phone, texting one of the two in the interrogation room, Rossi grabbed his phone and read the text, nodding towards the glass and pulling Hotch from the room. As they did so, Spencer left the viewing room, taking an extra minute or two before going into the room with her.

The Ghost then moved, her pale blue eyes watching his form since he had entered the room, her bones creaked and groaned in protest as she moved, sitting still was never good for anyone’s body. Spencer passed a cup to her before sitting down, the glass filled to the brim with water, followed by a muesli bar. Since entering the building she hadn’t had any food or water, she would be hungry and dehydrated.

“Why haven’t you spoken to anyone yet?” He asked her, not expecting a response nor receiving one. It was strange to be sitting in front of her, he felt like he knew her, but it was only because of the contact they had over the computer. Her eyes flicked to the camera in the corner of the room, so with that Spencer asked for the camera to be turned off. Only once the blinking light stopped did he re-ask the question. “Why haven’t you spoken?”

“Trust… it’s a strange thing, don’t you agree?” Her voice was raspy, from the lack of water. She took the glass in her hands, drinking half of it as Spencer spoke.

“I do, but that doesn’t really answer my question.”

“Sorry, let me explain. I have met your team before, you would be the only one who would remember, it was a few years ago and you have had many cases since then. But, even with that previous meeting of each other, they do not trust me to speak the truth. We have continued communication, from when I have hacked into the FBI’s network, stolen files. You know why I did that, they don’t. They do not trust me, but you do. I cannot speak to people who do not trust me to speak the truth, nor can I speak with people who I myself do not trust.” Spencer was not unnerved by her, he may have found that a bit more strange if there wasn't that strange sense of trust between them.

“Well, I'm going to need to ask you a few questions, Cressida…” Spencer trailed off, the Ghost leaning forward to put her elbows on the table.

“I haven't been addressed by that name for a while.” She started, looking down to her hands to mask a look of emotional pain before looking back up to Spencer's eyes. “I swear I will answer your questions as truthfully as I can.”

“Good, first question, a few years ago we had a series of undetectable hacks into the system. The only thing left behind was a picture of a cartoon ghost until specific messages were left to me.” The Ghost smiled as he spoke, knowing exactly where he was going with the question. “Was that you?” She laughed, her eyes looking to her hands before looking back to him.

“I think you know the answer to that question already, you have for a long time.” She replied, her eyes shining with something he didn’t quite understand yet. “You knew from the moment I gave you those clues, I know you did. You just weren’t sure because according to the State, I’m supposed to be dead.”

***

To Spencer Reid, his job always had an element of fear to it, in his early days he had recurring nightmares because of it, seeing the people killed, envisioning the people who had committed the crimes. They had eventually eased off as he became more familiar with the work, becoming a rarity instead of commonplace.

One thing that usually helped him was looking into cold cases, or tackling on that seems to difficult for anyone else to solve. One of those cases involved something that had happened to himself, it didn’t involve murders, at least not that he was aware of, it didn’t involve anything other than what seemed to be a prank at the BAU.

After turning his work computer on one morning he found the generic wallpaper had been changed to a picture of a cartoon ghost, he thought of it as a joke until he realised that every computer had the exact same picture set as the new background. Most people ignored it, changing it back to whatever it had originally been, but Spencer didn’t.

No alarms had been tripped, no shut down of the system had occurred, there had been no meltdown so they wrote off a hack as the reason behind it. At least until it happened a second time. Spencer hadn’t been aware of it until others began complaining about the wallpaper changing again, but he had a feeling it was more than a prank. He had gone to Garcia, asking if she could find out if the system was hacked, she found only found some coding amiss, but didn’t think it was anything to worry about.

So he waited for it to happen again.

Inevitably it did, everyone’s wallpapers changed once again, but Spencer’s computer didn’t have a picture of a ghost. The picture was simple, black background with grey block lettering. _Stanford_. He wrote it down, wondering if it meant the University or whether it was a surname. It had been about a month before it happened again, no one else’s wallpapers had changed, but Spencer’s had. This time a different word was printed across Spencer’s screen. _MIT_. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He doubted it was a coincidence that two Universities of America had been the two different names left behind by whoever was hacking into the system.

He was sure that it was a set of clues when the next time _Princeton_ was the word left behind. Immediately he ran through his knowledge of the three universities, all of them had exceptional computer science and mathematics courses. Whoever had left these words behind was trying to give him clues, as if to find out who they were. That didn’t seem to fit right, usually, hackers want to stay anonymous, but from the information he had he could narrow it down to a very limited amount of people. Whoever had done this wanted to give him their identity, and whoever it was most likely attended all three universities.

Over the span of two years, it happened another seven times, at least with clues left behind for him. Fire. Townhouse. Ghost. Death. Ghost. Stolen. Ghost. He was guessing that this was their story, a very short and fractured version of it at least. The word ghost was key, it seemed to be extremely important to them, and now he had to find out why. He had eight different clues, he just had to figure out what they meant.

It took a while for him to go to Garcia about it, he wasn’t sure what would happen when he told her why she would be searching this for him. But, he did, giving her those eight words and standing next to her as she searched through everything she could. She first typed in the three universities, finding very few people who had attended them all.

The next word he gave her was _ghost_. He wasn’t sure why, but he felt that was the next step in the search. Surprisingly, it came up with one result. Cressida Stiel. The only reason it did so was due to an article about the death of a young woman who had been attending Princeton University, about to finish her PhD in mathematics when she died of a fire in her townhouse.

He recognised her face immediately, it took him a while to process where from but that wasn’t important at the moment. What was important was that it seemed to be a dead woman who was hacking into their highly secure system and leaving nothing but a trace. Her white hair and extremely pale skin had earned her the name of Ghost from the few people she called her friends at the university.

The article had labelled her as the ‘Ghost of Princeton’, not only because of her albinism but because of her ability hack into systems without leaving a trace behind. She already had two other PhDs, one for psychology and the other computer sciences, she seemed to be the only person who would be able to get into the FBI system without a hassle…

But she was dead.

He managed to obtain the file on the investigation into her death. Her body had been burnt so badly that cause of death couldn’t be discerned, so they assumed it was from the flames. The confusing part was that if that was the case, the neighbours had no reports of screaming from inside of the townhouse during the fire, they had assumed she wasn’t inside because of it. But once the fire had been put out and the firefighters walked through the house to look for a cause, they found a body on the bed, only identified as Cressida because of dental records.

No DNA test had been run, her DNA wasn’t in the system so there was no point. Her fingerprints couldn’t be checked, her body was too badly burnt. Identification by the family also couldn’t work, for the same reason as the fingerprints.

They found that the fire had started due to a towel being left on the heater inside of the master bedroom, the one where they found her body on the bed, no sign that she had been in pain at all. A few weeks before her death she had gone to the police, complaining of a possible stalker following her, she forced them to take her fingerprints so they could be on file but for some reason didn’t get her DNA into the system.

They treated the death as suspicious, and that the killer could have been that stalker, but that was where they arrived at a dead end. There was no DNA left at the scene, there had been no reports of a man hanging around the neighbourhood. She was filed as a cold case.

But as Spencer read over the file once more he decided it wasn’t a cold case anymore.

It was open, and there was a chance he could solve it.


	2. Required Information

“You knew from the moment I gave you those clues, I know you did. You just weren’t sure because according to the State, I’m supposed to be dead.”

Spencer had always known it was her, it was just strange that the only confirmation he would take for her being alive was seeing her sitting in front of him. He could touch her if he wanted to, not that he did.

“Why is that? How are you even alive? Your dental records matched up to the body they found in your townhouse.” Spencer pointed out, it was the one piece of tangible evidence from the entire investigation, he needed to know how it was wrong.

“So you did investigate my murder after I gave you those clues, I wasn’t sure if you had or not. But if you must know, if you haven’t already guessed, the Haunting forced me to change my own records as soon as they kidnapped me. Within two hours of being held captive they forced me to do so, I hadn’t known why until I saw the reports of my death on the internet.” She explained, a sense of discomfort on her face, not that he had been through the same situation as her, but he had an understanding of the pain of helping to fake your own death.

“The investigation-” He was cut off from asking his next question, but that seemed to be because she knew where he was going with it.

“It was a sham. They needed the case solved, the Haunting have a wide influence over people when they need it, they’re similar to me, psychologists, computer science people. They know how to manipulate people when needed, or find something to blackmail them with. Aside from that, one of the four had planted himself in the police department there as a detective come specifically to investigate my murder. It was said that he specialises in stalker cases and was the best shot they had to find my killer.” She explained, her foot tapping with impatience.

The Haunting. From the fractured and minor communication between the two people in the room via one sentence notes left on Reid’s work computer, he knew that was the name of the group who had taken her hostage. Had forced her to do all these things. But aside from that, he didn’t really have a clue as to who they were. He knew that on the other side of the glass someone would be on the phone with Garcia, trying to find out what they could about the group.

“You were kidnapped by the Haunting. What did they want with you?” Spencer asked next, Cressida took a deep breath to calm herself before she even began. He could tell from the way her hands were beginning to shake.

“You’ve seen my resume, my file. I have two PhDs, they kidnapped me when I was thirteen days away from receiving my third. I had a job lined up at the NSA as a technical specialist, if that fell through I was coming to the FBI as a technical analyst. I’ve seen your cyber-crime department, it seemed like a unfulfilling job, intangible. I wasn’t going to apply for a job where I can’t use all of my resources.” She stated. “They are a very small group, as I said of the four, I was one of them. Not by choice, clearly, else I wouldn’t be here right now.” That was true, they had caught her because of a slip-up of her location, although he guessed it wasn’t a ‘slip-up’ as such, more like she had been in Quantico by chance and decided to use that to her advantage.

“What did they  _ need _ you for? You were a very high profile student with plenty of connections to people who would investigate your disappearance. That seems like a lot of effort for one person.” That much was clear, they could have found someone with lesser skill but also lesser effort. They went into a lot of effort to get her, to leave her with no other choice than to work for them.

“That’s why they faked my death, so no one would question why I was gone. And what they needed me for, it was quite simple, they wanted access to FBI, NSA and military files. I was able to access them without a problem and without a trace. I’m the best, and that’s what they wanted.” She answered, still tapping her foot on the ground. Spencer was finding it difficult to not be distracted by all the questions running around his mind, he had to stick to the script he had written for himself, needing to stay on topic. He could find out details later, he needed the general story now.

“The other three, who are they?”

“There’s Ghoul, unfortunately that’s the only name I know him by. He was like me, computer genius, not as good as myself but fairly close. He was tasked with watching the NSA, I was tasked with watching over the FBI. There was Watchman, his first name was Jericho but I never caught his last name, he has experience in the military, he kept control over us and was also co-leader with Shifter. Shifter was the guy in the field, he was the one who went undercover as the detective on the murder case. He comes up with the plans, he tells us what we’re doing, he’s the one who taught me how to shoot an array of guns, hand to hand, how to blend into a crowd… all of the important stuff. He was a psychologist, and a gun and self-defence fanatic, with him and Jericho leading us we were pretty much untouchable.” Cressida stated, a scowl on her face.

“What were you to the group?”

“The hacker, the profiler, the information gatherer, the other person on the field… everything really. I made sure that they would end up relying on me, so that if I ever got out of the group I could take them down easily.” Spencer was surprised at the statement, but realised how much of a good idea it was. To make a group reliable on you meant you had the leverage, if you have the leverage you can make it tip in your way… but there was something bugging him.

“You watched over the FBI?” He asked, she nodded. “What was the purpose behind that?”

“To see if you would pose a threat to the Haunting or not. I focused on the BAU, you seemed the most interesting and most likely to find us if our existence ever got out.” She replied.

“You watched us?”

“Yes, I kept a very close eye on you, followed you around the country through cameras, sometimes even in person when I could. I know a lot about the cases you have taken, I knew that if I had any chance of getting out it would be with you guys. So, whenever Jericho or Shifter asked about the BAU I had to lie, apparently I did that very well.” She answered.

“How much do you know?”

“A very detailed background of each member of the BAU, much like what you would know of me. I know how each of you operate within the team, I know who works best in what situations, I know all of your tactics for bringing down an Unsub… do I need to go on?” She asked him, and Spencer shook his head.

“What did you watch and how?”

“I watched many things, I was able to use the cameras that you communicate to Garcia with on the plane, I was able to watch you travel through traffic cameras, I watched nearly every takedown you guys had, I followed how you solved a case through your text messages, your calls.” She stated as if it didn’t mean anything, he took a mental note to ask about how she was able to do that later. “If you need an example of anything that I’ve seen there was one memorable moment that I watched through hospital cameras. Your first kill, of that idiot nurse who hurt as many people as he could to get a rush in the ER, you’d remember that one, surely.”

He did, he remembered it well. There was no way they would have taken down the Un-Sub except for killing him, to save all those people in the ER, all those innocent people. It had been one shot, directly through the brain that killed the Un-Sub instantly, but it had been one shot that echoed through his mind for weeks afterwards.

“You did what you had to, to keep all of those people safe. You took a beating, but it was worth it for those other people.” Cressida stated, knowing she had taken him to a dark place. It was strange, for him, to be comforted by someone that he didn’t necessarily know but feel the effects he was supposed to.

“What else have you seen?” Spencer questioned, she shook her head.

“Nearly everything that could be caught on camera, and things that I’ve seen that haven’t been on camera have been in person. I watched through those migraines, I watched through your addiction to Dilaudid, I watched you struggle through Anthrax without painkillers because of that addiction, I watched you get taken by Tobias which led to that addiction, I watched the aftermath of you getting shot in the leg, I watched as you grieved Gideon’s death, I watched your relationship with Maeve, the aftermath of her death. I’ve seen everything, Dr Spencer Reid. I know as much about your team as you know about each other, maybe even more. I’ve seen you all at your worst, I’m one of the few people who can say that.” Cressida stated, not seeming to care that she had brought up next to all of the horrors that Spencer had gone through.

Spencer had to pause for a moment and recollect his thoughts. He had to start from the very beginning of the story, back to when they had first met many years ago. Blocking everything else from his mind he focused solely on that story, they had details of what she had done, they now had to get her storyline straight.

“2004, one of my first cases, you were one of the college students interviewed.” He stated.

“Yes, I was 21, completing my mathematics PhD, while studying my chemistry BA on the side. That was Princeton, when that kid got murdered… drowned in his bathtub if I remember correctly. Was left in his apartment alone for three days before his family came to visit and found his body. I knew him, he was in a few of my chemistry classes.” She answered. “I remember how awkward you were interviewing us as a group in one of the classrooms. You kept looking at your feet, when you looked at me you blushed. I assume you found me attractive, which is a little weird, no one else seems to.”

“Um…” Spencer had to pause yet again. “How many months after that did the Haunting take you?” Cressida closed her eyes for a moment, thinking through the timeline of her life before answering.

“Eight months. You were in the swing of things by then, I had been watching the FBI for about three months when you shot Phillip Dowd.” She answered, giving a little more information but further context into the timing of her kidnapping. “You want to know who the body belonged to, right?” She asked next, it was a question that Spencer had been avoiding, so he nodded in response. “The last name was Carr, the first name began with an E, probably Edyth, maybe Eadlin. I don’t remember exactly, she’s probably a missing person in New Jersey, they wouldn’t have taken her from a surrounding state.”

“We’ll Garcia to look that up, we need to let the family know.” Spencer stated.

“This might sound strange, but, would I be able to talk to them? I want to apologise…” She stated, Spencer couldn’t guarantee that, but didn’t want to say ‘no’ either.

“We’ll see what happens.” She nodded in response. Spencer’s phone vibrated, so he checked the small screen and saw a text from Hotch. It was a question to ask Cressida immediately, so he did so. “We need to know how you got into the system, the Haunting could be in right now.”

“Why do you think I wanted the camera turned off?” She asked. “They would be in, but I can’t tell you the gateway, then they will know for sure that I’m helping you.” The way she said that, with such fear in her face, they were holding something over her.

“What do they have on you?” Spencer asked, Cressida dropped her head into her hands, rubbing her eyes.

“My family, if I don’t cooperate they’ll destroy my family’s lives. Take their money, ruin their reputations. My mother is a highly achieved psychologist, my dad a physicist, if their reputations are tarnished they will lose their jobs. My sister’s life could be ruined, she could be pinned for crimes that she didn’t commit, she would never be hired for a job, she could get addicted to drugs. Anything could happen…” She trailed off.

“They wouldn’t kill your family?”

“What’s the point of that? They can only do that once, they could ruin my family over and over and over until I get the point. If they kill my family it’s done, there’s no way to bring them back.” She answered, so it had been a psychological hold over her.

“How do you know they’re even alive? Were you allowed to check on them?”

“No, they wouldn’t allow me to do so much as search their name. I can’t risk their livings because of me.” She told him.

“Would you like to know how they’re going? If they’re even alive?” Spencer asked, she didn’t respond with any kind of movement but the look in her eyes was enough for him to look at the glass and nod, urging someone to look into it. “Did they ever give you evidence they were alive?”

“A few weeks after they took me they showed me a video, taken from inside of my family’s house. The Haunting had installed hidden cameras, they said that the video was the last time I would be able to see them and that if I asked about them again they would empty their bank accounts.” She answered.

“That was the last contact?” Spencer checked, she nodded. The door to the room suddenly opened, JJ entering with a piece of paper, giving a small smile to Cressida before exiting. That hadn’t been a smile to give the Ghost comfort, it was one of pity.

“What is it?” Cressida asked as Spencer ran his eyes over the piece of paper, he didn’t know how to answer her, so instead he just handed the piece of paper to her, watching as tears brimmed her eyes.

There would be nothing to hold her back now.


	3. Truth and Code

She took a deep breath, reading the file excerpt over and over again, hoping there was some mistake. She knew there wasn’t. Calm. She had to keep calm. Her emotions couldn’t get the better of her, not now.

“Are you okay?” Reid asked, watching as her hands began shaking.

“I just found out my parents were killed a month after I was taken, how do you think I am?” She asked with a growl in her tone, she then realised that her sister had not been mentioned on the piece of paper. “Where’s my sister?”

“She was in foster care, was then adopted by a wealthy family, she’s now going to college at Harvard.” Reid answered, holding a different piece of paper in his hands. JJ must have brought in two without her noticing.

“Is there anyway that she can be connected to me?” Cressida asked next, needing to know before she would take the next step.

“Her last name is changed, her first name is now her middle name, but depending on where the rest of the Haunting are we could probably get to her before they would.” Reid replied.

“They're in Quantico… close to here.” She answered. “Is she okay?”

“She has amnesia, probably as a mental defence.” Reid answered, handing over the second piece of paper to her. “She wouldn't remember who you are.”

“Good.” Cressida stated finally, her sister was safe and didn't know who she was. She couldn't ask for anything more.

“Are you ready to help us now?” Reid asked after a few moments of silence. Cressida stared at the picture of her sister, so grown up and so different to her. Although their face structure was similar, Cressida had albinism, her sister did not.

“You need to promise me two things… my sister's guaranteed safety, but without her knowing why unless necessary.” She started, Reid nodded, so she got prepared for the next one. “And I help you take them down, on the field, not just as a computer person.” She finished, awaiting a response from him, but didn’t receive one as he looked to the two-way mirror. There was suddenly a knocking from the glass, Reid turned to look back at her.

“Give me a moment.” He told her, she nodded as he stood from the chair and left the room. Cressida could sense that he was in the hallway, that had always been a talent of hers, her intuition. She had always trusted it, and so far it hadn’t led her wrong. He would be talking to Hotchner, trying to figure out what to do about her conditions of helping them. They would have to agree to them, she was the only one who could get the Haunting, who knew how to break through the security system without leaving a clue behind. Of course, that was fairly easy considering _why_ she was able to do so.

Her left hand went to play with the cuff around her right wrist, she would be able to get out of these cuffs in a few minutes and break out of the FBI headquarters within the next hour. Her mind flashed back to Shifter, how he handcuffed her and left her until she could get out of them. The first time it took her nearly two days to work up enough nerve to dislocate her own thumb and get out of them. The second time it took her two hours, the next was five minutes. If she was ever caught the Haunting couldn’t risk her being found out, she was supposed to be dead after all, so they taught her ways out of every situation, practiced them until they became second nature.

She had broken out of handcuffs, zip ties, being tied to a chair, a straight jacket for whatever reason, out of being tied up (hands and feet) by rope, she could undo or tie every type of knot, plus she had near perfect accuracy with every type of handheld gun in America or take down a well-trained soldier in hand to hand combat. She wouldn’t say that was what made her deadly, her brain was her most honed weapon. It had been in training since she was one year old, her parents seeing her intelligence and feeding it from the moment she had said her first sentence. She had done a masters in physics to make her father happy, that was one of the first she had completed, which she had done so by the age of fifteen.

She had three PhD’s, all in the areas that interest her, psychology, mathematics and computer sciences, three masters in physics, sociology and biology and two bachelors in chemistry and english. Although her mathematics PhD wasn’t ‘completed’ as such, it was only because she hadn’t spoken to the panel about her thesis. That was the last thing she had to do and her life education goals would have been complete. That had been ripped away from her, which had fuelled her anger at the Haunting from the start, until they began threatening her family. Then that had taken precedence.

The door opened again, Reid entering midway through her thought process. He took the seat across from her again, looking her directly in the eyes. Another talent she had was figuring out a person’s tells within a few minutes of study, no one was ever able to lie to her. Another thing about the Haunting, they had constantly lied to her, so she wasn’t sure what they were like when they told the truth. That’s why when they had said they would hurt her family she hadn’t noticed they were lying, if she’d had any indication she would have broken away from the group a lot sooner.

“The first condition, your sister, is sorted, we were always going to protect her even without that. She could be in serious danger if the Haunting found out about her.” He started, Cressida whispered her thanks before he continued. “The second condition is going to be based on the answer to this question; have you killed anyone before?” Cressida paused.

“No…” She trailed off before realising that was a lie. “Well, not in the sense that you’re asking. I have killed people, yes, but they were not innocents. They were extremely bad people who had bought government information off of us, it was the only way to stop them from destroying the country.”

“Did the Haunting know of this?” Spencer asked next, not seeming completely shocked by her answer.

“If they did, they didn’t let me know.” She answered, watching as Spencer turned to look back at the glass. Two knocks came from the other side, she wasn’t sure what that meant but Spencer did. He stood up, walking to her side of the table and using a key to unlock the cuffs from her wrists. She was free.

“We can’t guarantee anything after the Haunting are caught…” He trailed off as she played with her now free wrists.

“Understandable, I would expect no less.” She stated, standing up slowly and grabbing the muesli bar left on the table that she hadn’t eaten yet. She unwrapped it, took a bite and looked into Reid’s eyes. “Okay, take me to the nearest computer.”

***

“This isn’t the closest computer, but probably the best one for the job.” Spencer stated, not really knowing for sure but assuming as such. He had taken her to Garcia’s office, a technological haven. Which was partially the reason why he disliked going in, but he followed Cressida as she entered, needing to stay with her as the rest of the team began locating the other three members of the Haunting.

“That’s fine, that makes sense.” Cressida stated as the door closed behind them, Garcia turning around on her chair to face the too.

“And how can I help my favourite…” Penelope Garcia paused as she saw Cressida, immediately standing up from her seat. “Cressida Stiel.” She stated, looking around the room. “Welcome, welcome to my office. Computer is all yours.” The blonde stated, gesturing to her chair as Cressida nodded her thanks and took up the seat. “I’m sorry about your family.” Garcia stated next.

“It’s fine, I think I knew deep down anyway.” Cressida replied, already going into the security system and looking through the codes.

“No, I didn’t know it was for you when I was looking them up, I…” Garcia trailed off again, releasing something that Spencer hadn’t. “You’re the Ghost.” Garcia spoke again, and Cressida nodded. “Well, no wonder you were able to get into the system so easily.” Spencer gave a blank look to the technical analyst who took a breath of excitement. “Oh god, do I know something that you don’t?” Spencer continued to look at her in confusion, occasionally checking on Cressida’s progress.

“Cressida Stiel created the security system we use at the FBI, the NSA and most other Government things.” Garcia told him, he then looked to Cressida as if to get an approval on that statement.

“It was my PhD thesis for computer sciences, one of the people on the panel had connections to people in the NSA. He brought my software to their attention, a few weeks later it was being installed in most government branches. I received a fair amount of money for it, not that it matters since it’s all gone.” Cressida stated, the coding flying over the screen. “Of course, that was a few years before the Haunting took me… it was very advanced for it’s time, and it has been updated a lot, but the general base of the system is the same, and there was only ever one weakness to it that I was able to manipulate to give me access to everything that it protected. By shutting down the backdoor it holes up any other patches that need to be fixed, hackers shouldn’t be able to get through this pathway. Not even me.”

“But don’t we need that access in case-” Garcia cut herself off after Cressida gave her a pointed look. “You’ll still have a way to break through, won’t you?”

“There is always a way to break through, it will just take some time. This pathway, what the Haunting know and have used for over a decade, will be shut. There won’t be a way through this that they will be able to find without me.” Cressida stated, looking at Garcia again. “Do you have a spare hair tie on you?” She asked, Garcia opened a drawer, handing one to the computer scientist. “Thank you.” She spoke, tying her hair back and continuing with her searching.

“What did the Haunting do, exactly?” Spencer asked as Cressida’s eyes flickered all over the screen.

“A multitude of things, hackers for hire, bodyguards, mercenaries depending on the pay for the job, a majority of our money was made through stealing files from the government and selling them to the highest bidder. Code words were always used, cash only, bidding was in person, we avoided the internet as best as we could. We didn’t do it very often, but you would be surprised how much people would pay for top secret files.” Cressida answered.

“But those you sold them to…”

“I got to them all, there were enough people with motive that the police never found us, or the Haunting ever thought it would be me. I destroyed the files as soon as I took them back.” She answered, and as Spencer watched her he struggled to believe that she had killed people. That she had potentially done it with her bare hands. “It’s okay to be afraid of me, but just know my mind is deadlier than my body. How I can kill people is nothing compared to the psychological warfare I could wreak on someone.” She stated, feeling the shift of tension in the room.

She worked in silence for a minute or two as Garcia processed that same bit of information that Spencer was. The only sound in the room was the tapping of her fingers on the keyboard, this was a well-known pathway to her, he could tell that much from the way she looked away from the screen but still knew exactly what she was doing.

“Is that your camera?” Cressida asked, using her head to gesture towards the piece of technology. Garcia nodded in response.

“It shouldn’t be on…” Garcia trailed off as she looked at it, seeing a blinking light.

“It is, the Haunting are watching my every move.” Cressida responded, stopping her typing with a deadly smile on her face. She then looked directly into the camera, the smile still clear. “You have ruined my life, all in an attempt for me to keep my family safe from your grasp. Guess what I found out today. Just the fact that the entire time I have been working for you that my parents have been dead. Killed by you, I should have known. But guess what, you don’t hold anything over me anymore, which was a bad plan on your part, because now I’m going to take you down.”

Cressida took a deep breath, Spencer could almost see her mind working behind those pale blue eyes. She was ready, she was ready to get revenge on these people that had taken a third of her life from her. She was ready to take them down and lock them up for what they had done, not just to her but to many other people.

“Your move.” She stated, still staring at the camera, she held her middle finger up to be in view of the lens before she did something seemingly insignificant but had changed their lives forever.

She hit the ‘enter’ key.

 


End file.
